Tamaki's Greatest Dilemma
by Miss Mary Sue
Summary: It was the end of the world, but more importantly, Tamaki Suoh had a zit. Gen, completed threeshot.
1. It's Big!

**Tamaki's Greatest Dilemma** is part of the **Zit Series** with other zit-related fanfiction from _From Spark to Flame, larrythestapler, asianangelgirl, _and _kasplosion. _If you like Harry Potter, Twilight, Naruto, or Avatar, please go check out their stories as well! More info on this weird series is in my profile.

_Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran._

* * *

**TAMAKI'S GREATEST DILEMMA**

**Part 1**

_Oh Tamaki, Tamaki, his beauty fairer than most. His eyes, a dazzling pool of azure and gleam; his hair, the soft locks of blonde curling with the gentlest touch; his lips, the ones that speak such bold and heart-racing words. You long to touch those lips. You long to caress that hair. But more than ever, you long to touch that beautiful face. Everywhere, anywhere, his eyes, his lips, his skin, his…_

_Wait._

_What is_ that_ on his nose?_

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

---

All the maids in the Suoh Mansion #2 knew Tamaki Suoh was a morning person. He didn't need alarm clocks or stern reminders to change clothes for school today – he had a natural sleeping schedule already lodged into his brain, and often even woke up just when the maids were yawning sleepily at the crack of dawn. _Rise and shine!_, that was his motto. Embrace the start of a new day! Jump out of bed with a smile!

That's why, Monday morning, the servants of the second mansion were fretful for their master. They did not wake up by the happy rings of his 'good mornings', but had leapt out of bed, startled by a shrill scream that shook the walls of the Suoh residence. When they knocked on the door, the response was utter silence. There might have been some quiet, muffled sobs if they pressed their ears hard enough against the door, but the lack of answer when they called his name was concerning.

Before anyone could make a phone call to Ouran for an absence, the door eventually unlocked, and out strolled their blonde master. He did not seem to be in any pain, but did walk briskly out the door with a paper bag over his head. He also bumped into a wall while walking his way out, but that was not the point. The point was: _something god-awfully dreadful had happened to Tamaki._

Evidence of that notion arose when the maids peered into his room after he left. They were positive a tornado did not hit this area in Japan this morning, and yet the blankets were strewn across the floor, the table was cluttered with knocked over bottles, and the mirror – the _mirror_, perhaps Tamaki's favorite object in his room – was cracked.

Something was wrong. No one had the faintest of ideas. All servants of the mansion were unaware that this was, by far, worse than any raging typhoon, worse than any worldwide earthquake, even worse than waking up Kyouya at 6 AM in the morning—

It was the end of the world.

But more importantly, Tamaki Suoh had a zit.

---

"My loyal subjects, I have an important announcement to make!"

The host club turned their heads and gawked at the paper bag adorning their king's face. 'Commoner Food Snacks' was scrawled upside down on the wrinkly material. The seventeen year old folded his hands behind his back and took a deep breath before speaking.

"I know it is short notice, but today's cosplay theme will be this! I am sure most of you are unfamiliar with these clever commoner devices called 'paper bags'—except for you, Haruhi!" A wide grin was hinted behind the brown paper as Tamaki peered down over a confused Honey. "We'll hide our beautiful faces behind these paper bags, and because of the concealment, the customers will become even more attracted to our mysterious aura!"

He waited for a response from his club members, but only received a long period of silence. The heavy weight of their stares seeped through his bag. Finally, he heard Haruhi made a comment.

"Senpai, did you hit your head on something this morning?"

"I ran into plenty of walls earlier, but otherwise, no! Well, are you going to put these on or not?" The king stretched out his arms to display an excess of paper bags.

"Uh, no." A twin's voice quickly shot him down. "That's got to be the stupidest idea I've ever heard. Why don't you tell us the real reason you're hiding your face, Boss?"

The other twin added, "Yeah, and Kyouya-senpai, how did you even agree to this anyway?"

The small click-clacking of the cool type's keyboard stopped. Predictably, his friend tilted his glasses as he spoke.

"I never agreed to such things. The host club sells because of our looks, and sales would definitely hinder if we were to hide our faces. However, I will allow Tamaki to continue wearing a bag, due to special circumstances…"

Special circumstances. Those words did anything but ease the curiosity of the host club members. The twins were the first to jump by the end of the sentence.

"Whoa, whoa. Special circumstances? Just what exactly happened to his face?"

"N-Nothing happened to my face, you nosy twins!" Tamaki shouted, and almost smacked Mori in a fit of blind rage.

"Hmmmm, oh really?"

Their question was not out of concern—no, it felt more _sinister _than that, and he could tell both redheads' lips curled up with all sorts of ideas circling their heads. They pressed on with more questions, more theories, anything that could spark up some trouble, as they whispered loudly in each other's ears.

"I bet you he got a nasty disease and now his face is all deformed. Eww, don't let him touch you, Haruhi."

"Yeah, or maybe he got into a freaky car accident so everything is all disfigured! His left eye's in the center of his face and his nose is hanging off of his chin—"

"That's gross, Kaoru, and Hikaru, stop creeping your fingers on my shoulder, I know it's you."

"I know! Our boss was a test subject for a mad scientist but then the experiment went all wrong so he ended up with a nasty disease, and as he was trying to escape the scientist's lab by car he got into a freaky accident when he crashed into a house and then their guard dogs started chasing after him so he tried to run but tripped and fell so then the dogs caught up to him and began gouging their claws into his—"

"SHUT UP! That is NOT what happened!"

This time, Tamaki was positive he was facing towards the right people, paper bag clouding his vision or not. He huffed angrily at the two. They failed to stifle their snickers, as they continued to chortle next to a frowning Haruhi.

"Well, if that's _not _what happened, what have you got to hide? It can't possibly be any more grotesque than what we said, right?"

Tamaki swallowed the lump in his throat. That was true, but he knew that if the host club members, no, the _twins_, saw his zit on his once perfect complexion, he'd never be able to live it down. He was a teenager, but he believed himself to be not just the normal teenager – he was supposed to be the one with smooth skin, the one who possessed flawless texture one could not help but envy! What would happen to his host club king position if everyone knew of the boy's drastic dilemma?

"I want to see it too, Tama-chan! I'm sure you look just fine!" Honey piped up. Though only the twins nodded eagerly with their senior, the rest of the club members were just as curious as well. Except for Kyouya, whom Tamaki had revealed his zit to earlier during class, only to have the shadow king turn away back to his paperwork and say, "Let's just get back to work, Tamaki."

That reaction to his zit earlier did not boost his confidence much. Tamaki sighed. Even so, the logical side of him knew he couldn't keep up this façade forever. And besides, if he had to show it to someone, it should be his friends – friends, like family, should always be there and comfort each other through these issues, right?

"Alright, but you have to promise me you won't laugh."

The twins jumped up, smacking their right hands on their hearts to pledge their oath. "We solemnly swear that we will never judge our boss no matter how hideous, disfigured, and mutated his face is."

"Good. Now, anybody I can actually trust?"

"Me too!" Honey waved a hand in the air, and Mori nodded with an "ah". Haruhi grimaced, mumbling "I guess, but does it really even matter…" and Kyouya continued typing silently on his laptop, because, well, seeing it once was probably enough.

And so, Tamaki took a deep, long breath before the great moment of truth.

And once he plucked the paper bag off of his face, in one swift motion, his vision was struck by the blinding lights of the third music room. When his eyes readjusted to the new settings (he never realized the world was so _bright!_), he stared back at the host club members, who all gawked back up at him. A pregnant silence followed, until all of a sudden Hikaru and Kaoru crashed onto the ground.

Tamaki Suoh, a man who was once so perfect, once so faultless, had the biggest, reddest pimple on his nose.

The zit was so distracting, in fact, that no one noticed the Hitachiin twins were confined to the floor, howling and clutching their stomachs.

Just like the twins, Tamaki's eyes began brimming with tears. "You JERKS!! I knew you'd react this way!!" His nose flaring did not help the duo much and they began gasping for breath, desperately needing oxygen and a tissue to wipe their eyes. But mostly the oxygen.

"I-It's not that bad, Tama-chan…" Honey spoke up. "Actually, if you look at it this way, you look just like… um… oh! Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer! Right, Takashi?"

"… Ah."

Haruhi gave the twins, who desperately needed stomach surgery by now thanks to Honey's thoughtful comment, a wary look. She then sighed and tried to retrieve Tamaki from his corner of woe. The brunette tapped him on the shoulder, and he turned to her with puffy eyes and an even redder nose. She put her hands on her knees and bent down to his crouched height, eyebrows furrowed with general concern.

"Look, senpai. I know zits can be embarrassing to have, but it's really not that big of a deal. Nobody is going to notice it, and…"

"Haruhi."

"Yeah?"

The blonde hugged his knees closer to his chest. "Stop staring at it."

Haruhi snapped her head up and met his eye level. "Huh? Oh! Sorry!"

He wailed and stained the black pants of his uniform with tears. "Even Haruhi thinks I'm hideous!"

Suffice to say, none of the host club members were all that helpful in consoling their king. Lying was one thing, but trying to convince each other that Tamaki's zit was _not _the biggest, reddest, most disgusting looking thing they had ever witnessed was another. And that was not a hyperbole.

The host club was certainly struck with a huge dilemma, indeed. The clients were coming to visit the music room any time soon now, and Tamaki was definitely not in any condition to recover in just a few minutes. And so Kyouya, being ever so conscious over the safety and settled stomachs of his clients (and the profit), stepped in and efficiently took charge of the matter.

"It seems like I've underestimated your acne. It looked much smaller when you showed it to me in class," he noted, not mentioning that it probably grew bigger throughout the day, and took out a cell phone from his pocket. "We'll just call your mansion and ask them to send your usual skin care products over here."

The blonde cried, "You can't! They all ran out! That's why I have this _monster _on my nose!"

"Then we'll simply buy a new one. What was the product you used to have?"

"W-Well, umm…" Tamaki stopped and pondered over the question. "It's called _Doux_, but it's a rare product in France. I got a whole bunch of them before I went to Japan, but the last one ran out today."

After dialing a few numbers, Kyouya held his phone to his ear and responded coolly, "With my connections, we should be able to import this product over here in a day or two. In the meantime, you can temporarily withdraw yourself from hosting until the acne clears up."

As the shadow king waited for the other receiver to pick up, the king himself stared at his friend in wide-eyed amazement. His zit might have also gleamed, just a little.

"Err, that seems a bit ridiculous to go through all that for a zit," Haruhi said. "Why don't you just—"

"Kyouya," Tamaki interrupted, not paying attention to the previous speaker, "you're… amazing! You're my hero, Kyouya! No! MY GOD!" He leapt into the air for a giant embrace, enthralled that his best friend had saved him from the dark, pimpley clutches of acne, even though the boy's idea was pretty much common sense anyway. But oh, that unconditional act of kindness proved Kyouya cared about him!

Well, of course. The host club, his closest friends, always cared for each other.

"Yes, yes," the dark-haired boy absentmindedly agreed, nudging him off. "Whatever it takes to keep earning regular profits from our customers."

_Eh?_

The other line on the phone finally picked up, and Kyouya went off to discuss skin care related matters. Tamaki fell silent as he was lightly pushed off, and he stared at the backside of Kyouya, his friend quietly giving orders in his usual business-like manner.

_For profit…_

But before he could ponder any more over the vice-president's unfeeling words, the twins interrupted from behind him, having recovered from their stomach surgeries. Since the whole zit situation had been seemingly resolved, the rest of the host club members had went on with their usual activities.

"So Boss, what're you going to do if your doux thing doesn't get shipped in one or two days? I mean, you did say that product is rare in France," Hikaru mentioned. They had overheard his conversation while their stomachs were getting pumped. Too much laughter and mockery really was hazardous for their health_…_

Tamaki shrugged. "What does it matter? I'll just resign from hosting a little while longer until they finally come. My only concern now is how my beloved ladies will cope with my absence."

He sighed dramatically, hugging himself with hands on both shoulders. Hikaru and Kaoru exchanged odd glances.

"Uhh, I think it does matter if that thing isn't here in less than a couple of days," Kaoru said.

"Because," Hikaru held up a finger and explained, rather bluntly, "all clubs have to take pictures for the yearbook this Friday."

Immediately, Tamaki froze.

And immediately, the twins found another opportunity to taunt their boss.

"Gosh, our boss is the chairman's son and he didn't even know what's happening on Friday," Kaoru mocked.

"Yeah, but imagine Haruhi opening her yearbook in the future to reminisce her great host club memories, and then she sees HIS zit every single time!"

The two both snickered at the scenario as their king turned pale. Haruhi, remembering him forever as _not _the amazing, handsome prince charming she had a mad crush on back in her high school years—but as Tamaki the Red-Nosed Host-Reindeer? And, and what if his future children rifted through his belongings one day and laid their eyes upon that shameful picture?! No! His legacy would _not _be lived down that way!

With gritted teeth, Tamaki declared with every ounce of seriousness, "That's not going to happen."

Hikaru and Kaoru stopped their laughter and gaped at the host club president. His eyes flared with fiery determination, and so did his zit. It made them almost afraid the pimple was about to blow. (Seriously, it was scary.) He stood up, and shouted unnecessarily, "Before we take our club pictures, I am going to do _EVERYTHING_ IN MY POWER TO RID OF THIS INCONGROUS INFLAMMATION!"

The twins blinked as he dramatically marched out of the music room, bidding goodbye and leaving the rest of the hosting this afternoon to them. They had no idea what he was planning, but shrugged it off anyway, concluding that their boss was most likely just being an idiot.

And he was, he was.

But they did not realize that when the king said everything, he really did mean everything_._

**To be continued.**

* * *

**Author's Note: **What? You thought one chapter was going to get rid of a pimple? Acne is serious business, you know.

This is my first ever chaptered fanfic (and only because I keep dragging things on way too long and suck at pacing), but I have no idea why, out of all story ideas I've written, the zit one ended up being chaptered. What does this mean_…_? Anyways, I am estimating this story will have three chapters in total. (Oh, geez.) I mean, if anyone is actually going to read it, haha. Cue the rolling tumbleweed!


	2. It's Red!

**Tamaki's Greatest Dilemma** is part of the **Zit Series** with other zit-related fanfiction from _From Spark to Flame, larrythestapler, asianangelgirl, _and _kasplosion. _If you like Harry Potter, Twilight, Naruto, or Avatar, please go check out their stories as well! Links to the rest of this weird series is in my profile.

_Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran._

* * *

**Last time on T.G.D. Part 1:**_ On Monday morning, Tamaki woke up with the shocking revelation of a zit on his nose! He had just run out of _Doux, _a rare product in France that was the only thing that could treat his acne. Though his problem had been seemingly resolved by Kyouya, who said he would use his contacts to find the acne treatment in France, the twins revealed another distressing setback: all clubs have to take pictures for yearbook this Friday. Refusing to let his "legacy" be lived down this way and become the laughingstock of Ouran Academy (and particularly the twins), Tamaki decided to take matters in his own hands and get rid of his zit on his own. _

_But will the once so flawless king be able to purge his terrible acne in four days? And what is he beginning to realize about his friends from what Kyouya said before…?_

* * *

**TAMAKI'S GREATEST DILEMMA**

**Part 2**

_(Tuesday)_

For Antoinette, being the beloved dog of a wealthy owner meant being able to smell all kinds of different aromas in the second Suoh mansion. The chefs in the house were of the finest, so the golden retriever often snooped into the kitchen right before dinner. Of course, she was always eventually caught and kicked out afterwards, mouth tarnished with cake frosting and all.

But on Tuesday night, she smelled something different. The chefs never cooked anything else after dinner except dessert, but this aroma was anything but sweet. It reminded Antoinette of some odd combination of rice and bread, such plain foods the picky dog always refused to eat from her bowl. Holding her head up high and twitching her nose, she concluded the kitchen was not cooking with such basic ingredients – there was nothing but soap and mops in there during cleaning duty – but that the aroma came from the upstairs bathroom. Once she followed the trail, she found her master pouring the last bit of oats from a box and then taking a step in the bathtub.

"Ah, Antoinette!" the boy said, turning and showing a smile to his dog. She blinked at the weird looking bump on his nose.

Oh, that's right – ever since Monday, Tamaki Suoh had a zit.

Antoinette didn't care that much about skin care and follicle blockages, but apparently her master and other humans took it as a great deal. She didn't know what harm this tiny little "zit" could do to people (even though her master's wasn't all that tiny and little), but from what she had witnessed from this week so far, it could cause the owner of the pimple to gather bizarre ingredients and perform strange acts around the house.

For example, the first day he had the zit, he had come home from school with furrowed eyebrows and lips set in a firm line, immediately ordering dozens of various acne products while waiting (_impatiently_ waiting, for time was too short before picture day) for Kyouya to receive bottles of that special _Doux. _It must have been really special, because none of the other acne products worked, and just made Tamaki's skin more irritating and blotchy. But Antoinette didn't know whether he was supposed to use all of those new products altogether anyway.

And then, after failed attempts and blotchier noses, all the midst of high-strung panic caused her master to carry out even more incomprehensible habits. The first time, her keen nose had followed a trail of onions. The next few minutes following, she watched her master rub his face with garlic cloves.

Sometimes, she spotted him using avocado paste.

And other times, egg yolk.

And…

And now, he was taking a bath in oatmeal.

Tamaki sighed, his tense shoulders loosening up and his arms lying across the edges of the tub. "I really did need a nice bath after all that work from the past few days, running back and forth," he mumbled. Though steam was beginning to rise from the hot water, Antoinette was still able to find her master as she walked forth and sat next to the tub. He petted her head, stroking her long fur.

He nodded slowly to himself and contemplated, "I'll have to remember to leave some toothpaste on the zit after brushing my teeth, and then drink a glass of wheat grass juice before going to bed too."

_As long as you don't feed any of that to me! _Antoinette barked.

A maid tapped on the door. "Excuse me, Tamaki-sama, but I shall be leaving the telephone in this room for your convenience in case there are any calls for you at this hour. You said you were expecting a call from a friend this week."

"Ah, yes, that would be wonderful!" the blonde replied. The telephone was then set out in frofnt of the door before the maid left, keeping her eyes respectfully away from her master's body but also noticing the weird smell of… oatmeal…?

The oat groats floated beside him as Tamaki, now only accompanied by Antoinette, spoke. "Kyouya might call any time now; he did say it would take one or two days for _Doux _to come in…"

His azure eyes stared down at the water and he remembered the conversation from a few days ago. Kyouya said his men would search for that product in France, no matter how rare it was. Haruhi also tried to say something too, Tamaki realized, but the blonde had been too struck with awe by his best friend's considerate act of kindness. For him, he thought.

"_Yes, yes," the dark-haired boy absentmindedly agreed, nudging him off. "Whatever it takes to keep earning regular profits from our customers."_

…

Antoinette noticed his eyes growing distant and licked her master's hand. He snapped out of his reverie, smiled, and scratched the fur underneath her collar.

"Thanks, Antoinette. You're always concerned about me, aren't you?"

It was typical for Kyouya to care about maintaining profits. Tamaki knew that. It was also typical for the twins to make fun of him, for Mori to remain silent, for Honey to be more concerned about eating cake and for Haruhi to act apathetic about it all.

Recently though, Tamaki started to realize this was always typical.

And yes, even the second-year knew he was slightly (just slightly) overreacting if he only based this on his zit dilemma. But he remembered all those times of their direct refusal to his offer at helping the newspaper club, their reluctance at all his tactics to lend a hand to the other Ouran students who were facing problems, and their lack of concern whenever he, himself, was dealing with an issue. They called him a crybaby, they rolled their eyes at him, or they simply ignored him.

It was typical for his friends to do that.

As Tamaki stepped out of the bathtub and wrapped a towel around his waist, he pondered over what friendship really meant to him. Friends were supposed to be family. Families were supposed to care and look after each other. He had put himself in the father position, so of course he was always troubling himself for their sake, no matter how annoying the king thought some of them were (particularly a certain pair of devil twins, but deep down even he admitted that he cared for them too).

But what about _them_? Had his friends ever felt the same way about him?

Though Antoinette had always been a loud and rowdy dog, this time, she stayed quiet and still watching her master. She knew there was something troubling him by his face – and his frown, she noted, didn't really look angry, but actually quite sad.

"Antoinette, I'm starting to think..." he murmured, tying the final knot in his waist towel, "that maybe, the host club really doesn't care about m…"

_BRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINGGGG!!!_

"AAAAAHH!!!"

Her master did not have to spend the rest of the night dilly-dallying and reflecting for long, however, when the telephone rang loudly beside them.

The shrill rings echoed off the hallway of the second Suoh mansion's upper floor, Antoinette began jumping and barking, and a startled Tamaki Suoh fell face flat into a bath tub full of hot water and oatmeal.

---

"_Hellooo? Tamaki, are you there?"_

"_Who is this?!"_

"_It's just me, of course. Can't you remember the voice of your own father? Anyway, I'm feeling quite bored at work…"_

"_Do NOT bother me now, Father! I have problems much more troubling than curing your boredom!"_

"_Huh? What's the matter, Tamaki?"_

Tamaki furiously wiped the oat grains off of his face as he responded over the phone.

"_Oh, nothing, just the fact that I have just about the biggest zit in the entire universe and our club pictures are THIS Friday and everyone is going to see that picture and laugh at me and Haruhi will be forever disgusted by my hideous acne, and for the past two days I've been putting egg yolk and avocado paste and everything on my face and it STILL isn't gone, THAT'S what's the matter!!!"_

Yuzuru chuckled over the other line and joked, _"Well, son, why don't you try covering it up with make-up?"_

His laughter faded when he heard his son breathing heavily over the phone, fuming. Tamaki gripped the phone tightly as he shouted over the speaker, _"OF COURSE I DID THAT ALREADY! IT DOESN'T WORK AT ALL!"_

With a slam on the other end and the disconnection tone resounding in his ear, the chairman of Ouran Academy slowly put down his telephone and sat back in his office chair, stunned. Yuzuru brought his eyebrows together as he gazed out his window with general concern. He'd have a lot of things to explain to his son once he got home, particularly about getting in touch with a man's feminine side and putting on makeup as a hobby…

---

_(Wednesday)_

"O-Oh my gosh, Boss, you're _killing _us here…"

The twins had just finished gasping their last breath. Having recovered from their stomach surgery onf Monday (all thanks to the hilarious sight of Tamaki's giant zit), they knew they would be in even more critical condition if they continued laughing this hard. Still, they didn't expect their king to show up Wednesday afternoon with an embarrassing red-toned tan and a flat nose, as if he was some sort of alien from Mars. And knowing what kind of eccentric person he was, he might just as well be.

And yet, even so, he still had the zit.

Tamaki was now turning even redder with anger, and his zit flared due to the intense emotion. "Don't you dare laugh at me, you wretched twins! You'll never understand how hard I worked to get rid of my zit!"

Haruhi gawked at his face and noticed a strange scent of oatmeal coming from him, but concluded it was just her imagination. "Senpai… what exactly did you _do_?"

After a sniff to hold back his tears, the blonde began telling his friends his heartbreaking story. "When I got home on Monday, I ordered a bunch of different acne products, but even when I used all of the bottles up they still didn't work!"

"Didn't I tell you to leave this to me?" A hint of annoyance was evident not in Kyouya's face, but in his tone.

"I know! But when there was still no news about _Doux_, I got desperate! That's why I had to use other methods by going on the computer and looking through websites that had all these acne homemade remedies!"

"Homemade remedies? What are those?" Honey asked, glancing up at the taller senior Mori beside him, who only shrugged in response.

"It's something the commoners came up with because they're too poor to buy acne products for their skin," Tamaki explained matter-of-factly. "Haruhi, you must be familiar with these. They're treatments like applying an equal amount of lemon juice and rose water with a cotton ball and then dabbing your pimple with it, or making a warm bath with a blanch of nettle and rosemary…"

"I've never heard of these ridiculous cures," Haruhi said.

"In fact, last night I had to take a bath in nothing but hot water and oatmeal!"

"That's for chicken pox!"

"Ah-ha! You said you've never heard of them!"

The girl rolled her eyes as Tamaki pointed a finger at her triumphantly. Hikaru and Kaoru, though amused by their king's whacky antics, were now looking down on him quite pitifully.

"Boss, we think you and your zit may just be completely hopeless by now. Obviously, Haruhi's cures would be total crap," Hikaru said, missing the glare he received from the alleged commoner.

Kaoru added, "And besides, even if they did work, we're pretty sure you're not supposed to use them altogether in two days."

The twins watched Tamaki's jaw drop open in horror. "B-But… I had to cook oatmeal and put it on my face! I had to call a hypnotist! I had to eat a medium grated radish with every meal!" he protested. "I had to DRINK GOAT MILK!"

The host club members gaped at their president, wondering what on earth he had been doing for the past two days but at the same time not wanting to discover the answer. Fortunately for them, the boy had already retrieved to his corner of woe, sobbing at all his valiant efforts wasted.

"Then hopefully, you've learned your lesson," Kyouya spoke up, tilting his glasses. "Next time, just sit still and wait for your _Doux _to come in. They'll probably be able to find it by tomorrow, and I assure you it'll be much more useful than any of Haruhi's inadequate home remedies."

"Okay, I never came up with _any _of those stupid remedies," Haruhi snapped, "and if I had to give you my suggestion to get rid of your zit, senpai, it would be to do—"

"You know what? Why should we have to sit around and waste our time waiting for that doux thing to come over here?" Kaoru interrupted, oblivious to the scholarship student behind them who threw her arms in the air in exasperation.

"Yeah!" Hikaru smirked. "Why don't we do something about it… ourselves?"

Tamaki sniffed and turned his head at the twins. Teary-eyed, his lip quivered as he uttered out, "H-Huh?"

Something gleamed in the redheads' eyes as they grinned in unison. The spark in their goldenrods didn't exactly look hopeful or trustworthy, but advocated something more sinister. The blonde gulped as the two inched closer inside his corner.

"The only reasonable thing to do is," Kaoru began, as Hikaru pulled a giant metal plier out of nowhere and finished, "to POP THAT SUCKER OFF FOR GOOD!"

Tamaki's eyes widened as his hands immediately clasped over his nose as a shield from the malicious twins. "NO! NO! DON'T YOU DARE! THAT'S DEFINITELY GOING TO SCAR ON MY FACE!"

"That's only gonna happen if we screw up!"

"THEN YOU BETTER STAY AWAY FROM ME!!!"

Shrill screams (of Tamaki) and battle cries (of the twins) resounded off the walls of the third music room on Wednesday afternoon as the trio chased each other in mad circles – but participants and bystanders could both agree that no matter what they did, Tamaki's zit still laid perfectly on his nose by the end of the day.

---

_(Thursday)_

All hope was lost.

Club pictures were tomorrow, and _Doux _still had not been shipped in. Kyouya's men reported back that the company had gone out of business several years ago and no longer made any skin care products. Even Kyouya Ootori, the shadow king who always had the solution to everything, could not fix Tamaki's greatest dilemma.

Tamaki gradually stopped using ludicrous home remedies, and every attempt was only half-hearted. He was an absolute mess, a pimpley disaster that groveled around the music room and dampened the spirits of several others just by watching him. As he skulked near the dark corners in all his gloom and misery, clients watched with fingers over their mouths, eyes almost brimmed with tears, whispering softly, _Oh, if only I could reach out to him…_

But they couldn't.

Tamaki had given up.

The host club's air was thick with misery. Business was bad enough with the number one requested host resigned from his job, but a dismal Tamaki made it worse. People left him alone in his own corner until club hours were over and it was time to clean up. After placing away all the vases in the storage closet, Haruhi decided to approach the older student. This time, she firmly reminded herself to stare directly into his eyes and not at his zit, even though he began wearing a paper bag over his head again.

"Hey, senpai? How are you doing?" the scholarship student spoke politely. Her senpai was crouched in his usual corner, drawing gloomy circles on the floor with his finger. "Are you okay?"

A mumble of "fine" was all his answer.

"Did you, um, drink any more goat milk?" she asked lamely.

"No," he answered. "I've realized that all of your homemade cures were ridiculous, so I came up with a more rational solution for my zit."

Ignoring the vein popping on her head from the hypocritical comment, Haruhi pressed on. "Oh, really? What did you do?"

The blonde turned his paper bag covered head at the girl and pointed at his eyes. "I cut some holes in the bag to see better."

_Right, and it took you four days to finally think of this, _Haruhi thought to herself, remembering all those times the president of the host club kept on bumping into walls and talking to random clueless people. But though she knew her senpai was an idiot, for some reason, there was a soft spot in her heart that felt sorry for him. She had a feeling it wasn't because of his zit, but for something else she couldn't quite put a finger on.

"I don't think you should be so depressed over a zit," the girl said. "And it's really not necessary to go through all that trouble just to get rid of it. It's not that hard. If I were you, I would do—"

"It's okay, Tama-chan!" Honey suddenly spoke up. He had just finished devouring all of his cake and snuck up from behind them. "Because guess what? We really do have your _Doux_!"

In a split second, Tamaki's eyes lit up from behind the paper bag. He immediately took it off and stared at the senior boy wide-eyed.

"What? How? Where?!"

"Just let me put it on!" Honey ignored the questions and held a finger up. A small dab of cream stood at the very tip of his index finger. Haruhi raised an eyebrow. Something was suspicious here.

But Tamaki willingly agreed anyway and let the tiny blonde do what he had to do. Honey daubed the miracle-worker across his nose, and the senior's face was unusually focused and concentrated – until Tamaki furrowed his eyebrows together and stopped him.

"Wait a minute," he said, and the cream started dripping down to his lip. He licked it off of his mouth and then stared at the other host member in realization and confusion.

"This is… _cake._"

Tamaki gawked up at Honey, who returned the gaze with a weak smile.

"Eh heh… um… okay, we don't really have _Doux,_" he admitted. "I lied to you because, umm…"

"Because we all want you to shut up."

All eyes turned to the twins who had just spoken. The host club members had stored away all the furniture and roses, and were now watching the event that was about to unfold. The Hitachiins gazed frigidly at their boss as they continued talking.

"You're not even hosting in this club anymore, and you're still lurking here afterschool just moping around. It's pretty annoying."

"Kaoru," Haruhi spoke carefully, surprised. It wasn't like the twins to be this harsh. Why were they suddenly changing their attitude now?

"I agree," Kyouya added and flipped open his notebook, analyzing the statistics of their club from the past week. "Your gloomy presence causes a huge distraction and even more of a drop-down in customer rates. I believe it would be best for profits if you leave until your acne gets better, since your attendance here is unneeded now."

"'Cause Tama-chan is a depressing guy, right?" Honey said, and Mori nodded with an 'ah'.

Haruhi stared perplexed by the unexpected coldness of the host club members. The girl wondered why they were all saying this now, but she was even more worried about how Tamaki was going to deal with this.

He didn't handle it very well.

"What… are you saying? Is this really what you've been thinking all this time?" the blonde asked. His tone was lower than usual, as if he had been expecting this despite his questions. "I thought friends were supposed to care for each other—"

"That's the thing! We _don't _care about you and your stupid problems!" Hikaru snapped. "All you are is a big nuisance to us! Why don't you just get out of here and go home already?"

"_Hikaru!"_

Haruhi raised her voice, but she was the last person who spoke. A tense silence fell in the third music room. Tamaki felt as if he were gazing at strangers who were too far from his reach. He processed Hikaru's words in his head, and swallowed the lump down his throat.

"I see," he spoke quietly. "Then if I'm such a big nuisance, I really should leave. I should have expected the host club – who I thought were my friends – never did care."

The six members watched their king stand up wordlessly and exit the room, no longer caring whether a paper bag concealed his face or not. The door closed with an echoing shut, and Tamaki left without so much as a backwards glance.

All of a sudden, the tension in the room lifted off and dispersed in the air, as if it never happened.

"Phew! I thought he'd never leave!" Kaoru said, and gave a light slap to his brother on the back. "That was a nice play, Hikaru, though you might have overdone it with that last sentence."

Haruhi whipped around to the remaining host club members and they noticed a deep crease had appeared on her forehead. "Why did you guys say something like that?" she asked, exasperated. "I know Tamaki-senpai was acting all dramatic over his zit, but even he didn't deserve to be told off so harshly!"

Honey blinked up at the girl. "Huh? But how else are we going to have time to discuss about the plan without him around?"

"What?" she replied, puzzled.

"And besides," Kaoru said, with a shrug, "it's just a zit. He'll get over a few mean words."

But the scholarship student didn't believe so. She frowned down at her shoes, remembering the somber look on Tamaki's face when he had gazed at his friends earlier.

"Maybe Tamaki's greatest dilemma isn't about some silly little zit," she murmured to herself. "Maybe it's something that's been on his mind the entire time…"

This time, it was the host club's turn to be confused, as Haruhi snapped her head up and said, "I don't think senpai's going to get over this so easily. I'm going to try to talk to him, since apparently none of you will."

As the brunette trailed after their king, the door was slammed shut once again and five remaining students were left standing.

Kyouya broke the stillness as he spoke up. "… Hikaru, Kaoru, did you ever tell Haruhi about our plan?"

"Hikaru, you were supposed to do it, right?" Kaoru asked.

"Uhh, yeah." The older twin scratched his head. "But I'm always going along with you, so I asked Honey-senpai to do it."

"Yup! And I told Takashi to tell her! Right?"

The host club members all turned their heads to the tall senior looming over them.

"…"

Mori mumbled an apology, but Kyouya waved a hand to indicate it was fine.

"We'll just tell her after she comes back," he said, and then turned to the twins. "So what is this idea you two came up with to 'save the boss on picture day tomorrow'?"

"Yay, we're gonna save Tama-chan!" Honey exclaimed, bouncing his stuffed bunny Usa-chan in his arms.

Both redheads grinned as all members circled around, devising a plan for their one and only king. Kaoru revealed a long list (that he had also pulled out of nowhere) of strange items, ranging from basic food ingredients to bizarre hair products. As their friends leaned in to read the words scrawled on the wrinkly paper, the twins began explaining their preparations.

"It's gonna get a little messy," Kaoru said, and they knew he wasn't talking about the handwriting.

Hikaru finished his brother's line with a juvenile grin and five words that spelled trouble for Ouran's club picture day tomorrow.

"… But the messier, the better."

**To be concluded.**

* * *

**Author's Note: **I apologize for the laaaazy writing, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter. At first it was extremely difficult for me to move on from the first scene where Tamaki was in the bathtub – not because I didn't know what was going to happen next (I knew basically how things were going to happen before starting this story), but because I was so, so, very lazy and uninspired. But the reviews I've received when I posted the first chapter were really nice and supportive, so I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed, story alerted, faved, or read this story. I hope this chapter isn't too disappointing…?

In case you are wondering, all of Tamaki's "homemade remedies" really are on the internet. I'm not guaranteeing they work, however! Which brings me to this question, because I'm just curious and I think it'd be interesting to discuss while waiting for the third chapter: how do YOU get rid of your zits, or what's the craziest thing you've done to get rid of one? And would you ever attempt one of the cures Tamaki tried?

As for me, I probably won't try any of those remedies. And I'd tell you how I handle my zits… but that would spoil the ending.

:)


	3. It's Gone!

**Tamaki's Greatest Dilemma** is part of the **Zit Series** with other zit-related fanfiction from _From Spark to Flame, larrythestapler, asianangelgirl, _and _kasplosion. _If you like Harry Potter, Twilight, Naruto, or Avatar, please go check out their stories as well! Links to the rest of this weird series is in my profile.

**Warning: **Lazy writing ahead, ahoy!

And P.S., you might have to reread a bit of the beginning of chapter 2 if you end up being confused with Yuzuru and Tamaki's late-night discussion. (Or what he was trying to tell his son anyway.)

_Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran._

* * *

**Last time on T.G.D. Part 2:**_ Running out of options, Tamaki was desperate enough to try "commoner homemade remedies" to cure his zit. But no matter what valiant stunts he pulled, from shoving egg yolk to his face to drinking goat milk, nothing could clear away the poor king's skin. The other host club member's attempts were not much help either, and later on Tamaki's friends harshly told him they never cared for any of his problems – something the boy had been suspecting all this time. But what he doesn't know is that they're actually planning a huge act on picture day to save their king from becoming ashamed of his second-year in Ouran Academy forever!_

_Will Tamaki ever be able to get rid of his zit in time? And what exactly is the host club planning?_

* * *

**TAMAKI'S GREATEST DILEMMA**

**Part 3**

Whenever Tamaki reflected back to this week, perhaps one of the most memorable parts besides picture day was Tuesday night. It was probably memorable, he considered, because his father's words were right – though he would not realize this until weeks from now.

Yuzuru had come home late from work, taking off his shoes right when he noticed his son sitting on the front steps of the staircase. Everyone in the mansion should have been sleeping already, but the man found this the perfect opportunity to address his concerns to the boy.

"Ah, just the person I've been looking for," he said, and sat on the steps next to Tamaki once the blonde snapped his head up and noticed his father. "Son, we need to talk. I don't know how to tell you this…"

Tamaki blinked. "Huh?"

The conversation following afterwards was a strange one. Yuzuru frowned with his eyebrows, fitting his fingertips together. He began talking about women and their feminine tastes for clothing and facial accessories, and then, he progressed to _men _with feminine tastes. It all led to awkward mumblings and gauche coaxes, and he stared at Tamaki very seriously as he reassured the boy he'd love him either way, whether he dressed like a man or—

"Wait a minute," Tamaki interrupted, "I don't do any of those things!"

Yuzuru stared back at his son. "You mean you don't enjoy wearing make-up?"

"No! That was only to cover up my zit, which didn't work anyway!" He wrinkled his nose and prodded the pimple gingerly with a finger. "It just made things itchier. I wonder how Ranka does it…"

He turned to his father, who was now in an unusual position, his back slumped over the staircase in utter relief.

"You had me worrying all day at work," he breathed deeply, massaging his forehead. Tamaki blinked back at him confused. Yuzuru's eyes then casted over to his son's hands and noticed a book he had been holding all this time.

"You stayed up late at this hour looking through last year's yearbook?" he asked curiously, observing the smiling students and then recognizing they were Tamaki and his friends in the host club. It had been a year since the members had been together – the twins were in their middle school uniforms in this picture –but even their first photo visibly illustrated their tightly-knit bond.

Tamaki nodded, his fingers pressing the crease of the page in-between, as if he had been meaning to turn to the next page but couldn't tear his eyes away.

"I wonder if it's all just in my mind."

"That what was in your mind?" Yuzuru asked. His son's eyes flitted towards each smile of the host club members.

"That we're friends, _good _friends," he explained. "I think of us as a family, but I've noticed we don't act that way. I can't remember the last time they actually supported me, that is, if they ever did."

"Tamaki, families argue and make fun of each other too. Not everyone admits how they feel, and some don't even realize they care for you," Yuzuru interjected. He leaned his face closer to the yearbook, humming a 'hmm' sound from his throat.

"And from what I see, your friends all look like they mean their smiles."

The blonde snorted softly. "I wouldn't trust you too much, your eyes are getting old!"

His father tossed a hand in a slapdash fashion and stood up. "You can insult your old man all you want, but I am positive you're making a fuss over nothing. If anything, you should be worrying about that zit of yours." The comment quickly gave Tamaki the impulse to clamp his hands over his nose again. Before Yuzuru proceeded to leave, a faint smile etched on his lips and he turned to the boy with a confident air.

"In fact, I'm certain once the new yearbook comes out, you'll see the friendship the seven of you really have!"

Tamaki didn't take his father's words too seriously that night.

Now, it seemed like the man was all wrong.

"_That's the thing! We don't care about you and your stupid problems! All you are is a big nuisance to us! Why don't you just get out of here and go home already?"_

Thursday afternoon was much worse than any other day this week. His friends had, surprisingly and yet not so surprisingly, revealed the truth of where he really stood in their worlds – a pesky, airheaded nuisance who was only in the way. (Except this time and probably for the rest of his life it was a nuisance who still had a big fat zit on his nose.)

On the front steps of Ouran Academy was a slouched king, one in a familiar position he was a few days ago. Tamaki folded his arms over his knees, and the wait for his limo seemed like forever to leave him alone with his thoughts. He didn't want to think about the recent events. He didn't even want to think about tomorrow – yearbook pictures were going to be bad enough with his zit, but what about his friends? Would the picture be full of phony smiles just like last year's? The thought of that was too terrible to imagine.

"Senpai?"

Luckily, a familiar voice had interrupted the blonde from his reverie. Tamaki turned his head to see Haruhi, the scholarship student closing the building door behind her before approaching closer. She stepped beside him and joined him on the marble floors.

"Hey, are you okay? I don't know why everyone acted like that, they wouldn't say things that malicious…"

The second-year shook his head. "It's fine. I had been expecting this anyway."

"They didn't mean it," the girl insisted.

Not wishing to discuss this any further, Tamaki faced himself away from his partner. "Please, don't look at me, Haruhi. I can't bear you to see me in this monstrous form…"

"You know you just have a zit, right?"

The boy whipped his head back and raised his voice higher like a child's. "It's not just a zit!" he cried. "This inflammation is the very thing that will send me to a straightway road of shame from tomorrow onwards! Nobody would understand my pain!"

"Senpai," Haruhi said with a tinge of annoyance, regretting ever deciding to make sure he was okay in the first place, "everyone gets zits. It's virtually one of the most common things every teenager has. As farfetched as this may sound considering your eccentrics, it actually shows you're a normal person."

Tamaki continued moping and ignoring the girl's words despite her reasoning. He tuned out of her lecture until he caught something that made his breath stop:

"… and besides, even I get them too."

_What?!_

Spinning his entire body round to her direction, Tamaki gawked at the girl with the widest azure eyes, as if she had just claimed the world was flat.

"No way! Anyone but you, Haruhi!" he sputtered. "Even your clients compliment how smooth your skin is!"

"You know, I'm not made out of silk," the female host said dryly. "Nobody really notices because I can always get rid of them."

Tamaki leaned forward and pressed closer to the freshman, waiting to hear Haruhi's biggest, darkest secret.

"Tell me how."

She nodded, and he waited for the revelation of the answer to life to be uttered from Haruhi Fujioka's lips. Her teeth parted. Her tongue rolled. Her mouth made way for the ultimate secret to every teenager's quest for a cure to acne vulgaris.

"Nothing."

Tamaki blinked. Did he hear that right?

"Nothing?"

The girl nodded once more. "I don't use any acne products. I don't even touch the thing. Pretty soon the pimple just disappears… probably because I don't mess around with it all the time like you do."

Tamaki stared back at Haruhi, who returned the look guiltless. How did he not see that answer coming? The girl was practical to the point of being pointless.

And pointless that piece of advice was. Obviously from the enormous size of his zit, it was far too late for Tamaki to just ignore the acne. For the past several days he had been clamping and poking his zit, not to mention performing those series of ridiculous home remedies suggested by Haruhi's fellow commoner friends. Of all days, she decided to tell him this _now?_

"That's some great timing. Did you ever think you could've told me this a _little _bit sooner?"

His comment was dull and anything but enthusiastic, but for some reason, his words immediately sparked a great flame inside of Haruhi. A vein popped at the side of her head as she pulled herself up, fingers clenched into tight fists.

"What do you THINK I've been trying to tell you all this time?!" Her sudden shouting sent a shocked and cowering Tamaki tripping over two steps off the stairway. He slightly trembled over her now towering figure. What was she so angry about?

"H-Huh?!" he managed to sputter out.

"For the past two chapters I've been trying to tell you to just leave your stupid zit alone and it'll be gone on its own, but all you and the other host club members do is interrupt me with some other ridiculous idea like popping it with a plier or drinking goat milk! _GOAT MILK, _of all things! How could you even have the sense to possibly consider _THAT_?!

Tamaki thought he might as well cry at this moment. The poor guy had no idea women could be so scary, and he was utterly confused by the words of the fuming student.

"That is exactly why it's your own fault you think none of us care about you! We really do, senpai! But you never tell us your real problems and only share the trivial things like some little zit…" This time, her face relaxed into a more serious expression as Haruhi stared dejectedly at the host club president. "You mistrust our reliabilities because you can't take a good look at us, and listen when it's important."

It was perplexing, trying to find the reason for his distress and tracing the line between his friendships and just some silly zit. Somehow, through Haruhi's snappish words, that line became slightly clearer.

So they really did care for him? But last time, Tamaki heard very clearly Hikaru's biting words, and they hardly had any compassion. He had listened, but that didn't make Haruhi's words true at all.

He was afraid. If he took a good look at the host club, he was afraid what he might see.

"Hey, don't stay too close, Haruhi! You might get infected!"

Both heads spun around to the two voices in unison. Hikaru and Kaoru had sat perched on top of the railings above them.

"You know that doesn't happen," remarked Haruhi wryly, and gave a last huff from her recent outburst.

"Yeah, but we still need you," Kaoru said, tilting his head slightly over to the direction of the third music room where the other host club members were. "Come on, we're having a meeting and everyone is waiting."

"Everyone's supposed to be there," Hikaru noted, but then added, "Well, except for you, Boss."

It was that comment that made Haruhi frown and suspect something was up, but Tamaki found this behavior to be redundant already. Of course they didn't care; Haruhi was just trying to snap him out of his reverie. Fortunately, he saw his limo pull up in time for him to take his departure. The boy heaved a sigh and stepped inside the car, leaving the two without as much as a single word or backwards glance.

He already knew his friends weren't interested in him lingering around. He didn't need to 'listen' or 'take a good look' to know.

Still, that didn't ease the aching in his heart when he sat quietly in the car as much as he wished it would.

---

_Today._

Today was the moment of truth.

_Friday_.

… And what a pleasantly, superbly, fantastic day it was!

Tamaki ran a comb through his soft locks of blonde hair and flashed a toothy grin at a hand-mirror before tucking it pack in his pocket. Hair gel kept his strands perfectly in place and his teeth whitening made sure the pearls in his mouth shined bright. The boy brushed his hands over the iron-pressed blazer and strutted confidently through the school's hallways, basking the attention of many female students.

Today was a very wonderful day to take a picture.

"Tamaki, you look so handsome today!"

"Why thank you, my lovely ladies!"

_His _picture.

After many praises and thank yous, Tamaki approached the door before accidentally bumping into a yellow-clad girl. Her face snapped up, eyes widened. Though she was not a classmate of his, she recognized him for his popularity and her frequent requests for the host at his club.

"T-Tamaki!"

"My apologies, fair maiden," he replied with a gentle smile. "What seems to be the problem?"

"The h-host club… they're…"

She pointed a finger behind her weakly, but then clamped her mouth shut before speaking any more. Straightening her back up, the girl tried to remain composed and respond as normally as she could.

"I-I suggest you take the pictures quickly. The photographer is in a rather bad mood today." Her eyebrows furrowed after finishing her sentence and she wrinkled her nose. "And also… the smell…"

Pressing her hands over her nose, the frenzied student started running down the hallway, leaving a confused Tamaki standing in front of the door. He was then slightly afraid of the contents hiding in that room.

Was it the grumpy photographer? Was there something wrong with the sets? … Did something happen to the host club?!

The thought of anything terrible happening to his friends frightened him. The door creaked as Tamaki immediately rattled the knob and pushed it open, only to be struck by the most foul odor. As waves of stink flourished under his nose, he attempted to open his eyes uncertainly to see an even more horrific sight.

He thought he was witnessing piles of goop at first.

Then he realized it was the host club.

"What took you so long?" Kaoru asked in the most normal tone, hair dripping with grease. Honey waved and exclaimed "Hi, Tama-chan!", oblivious his hand had just flung a sticky, purplish oil around as if it was hitting a fan.

Tamaki's face turned pale. "A-All of you look like you've just rolled yourself in mud…!"

Though he couldn't see Haruhi's expression clearly behind the dirty stains on her face, her tone evidently showed she was grimacing. "I really, really wish we did…"

"Wait a minute," Hikaru, who was sported with a torn up school uniform, asked, "what happened to your zit?"

All the host club members' eyes were set upon Tamaki.

But before the single sanitary high school student could open his mouth, several assistants came over and rushed the seven hosts onto the set. After they organized the boys and one girl into ordered seating arrangements, third-years on top row and first-years on bottom, Tamaki's face turned even paler when one of the helpers apologized in her hastiness and explained the pictures must be taken immediately.

"Immediately? As in now?!" he cried, and then turned to his members. "Is the photographer really in such a bad mood? We're everything but ready! Why are you guys all like this?!"

The assistants hushed the boy's outcries, and the only tidying up they could do in the small amount of time they had for the host club's picture was to simply straighten Tamaki's tie before the cameraman barged open through the backdoor.

Tamaki didn't care how angry the man walking behind the camera was. He needed to know why his friends looked like they just went dumpster diving, and how they acted so calmly about this. It wasn't because he was embarrassed standing next to them. He was afraid something terrible had happened to them to have caused this mess.

Why, why, _why_?

"For you."

In the rushed pace of the photoshoot with the changing background sets and the hurrying assistants running to and fro, somehow, Tamaki heard Mori's voice behind him. His eyes rolled to the side, trying to catch a glimpse of the tall senior.

"What?" he whispered.

Though Kyouya's glasses were flecked with paint that also decorated his mucked-up hair and clothes (and they were always, _always _organized!), out of tendency he tilted his glasses as he spoke.

"Just this once, I won't charge you anything for these damages. We've all agreed on going out like to distract attention from your zit. No one will even notice it was there when they look at our yearbook picture."

Tamaki swiveled his head at spectacled student next to him in shock. He wasn't sure if he had heard it right, that the host club went to such extremes only to cover up a zit that, he now figured, wasn't all that big of a deal anyway. "You did all of this for me…?"

"Well yeah, we'd do anything for you," Hikaru said, and then clarified, "To shut you up, I mean." The six others who surrounded the host king all nodded their heads, but once Tamaki stared more closely at them, their grins – ones that were actually smiles – spoke volumes otherwise.

His throat felt like closing up as tears formed into Tamaki's eyes. The suave, handsome blonde started turning into his usual routine of crybaby. He couldn't help it; the boy was so touched he didn't even care that his friends stunk like expired milk left out on a hot, sunny day.

"Th-Thank you," he uttered, his lip quivering as the others tossed a hand and mumbled various condolences casually.

What felt like a long, heartwarming scene actually turned out to be only half a minute when the cameraman interrupted Tamaki's sniffles.

"Alright, stand still!" he snapped, and bent down slightly to fix an eye through the camera lens. "I'm only going to take this picture once. Our schedule can't possibly afford any time-wasting since someone stole all the food being served today. Most importantly, that mousse I was saving…"

His grumblings faded out were replaced by suspicious whistling from the twins in the first row. Tamaki did remember smelling chocolate standing next to them.

They stood there waiting for the photographer to adjust the camera direction, until Haruhi spoke up absentmindedly from a sudden realization.

"… Wait, so what ever happened to Tamaki's zit?"

Tamaki's face was the only one smiling and staring at the camera when all other heads turned to look at his face. The area on the tip of his nose was completely flat, with a complexion as smooth and pastel as the other features on his face.

His curse was broken. His zit was gone.

"Oh… that. It's a really funny story, actually, I'm sure when we look back at this we're all going to laugh together!" The now perfectly flawless man was chuckling nervously, and the intimidating stares of the other hosts heightened.

"You see, I found out the reason why I had such a big zit was because I kept on messing around with the pimple! So yesterday, I stopped touching it completely and overnight it just disappeared. I guess my complexion really is flawless; all I had to do was ignore the zit and it would vanish on its own!" His laughter grew uncomfortably louder.

The photographer shot a hand up and held three fingers on the air, ignoring the distraction of the host club members. _"On three!"_ he shouted.

"Talk about irony! You and I went through so many troubles for the past four days because of this thing—today was the biggest nuisance for you all, definitely—and all I had to do was leave the little zit alone! Hahaha, really funny, right?"

"_Two!"_

"… Right?"

"_One!"_

---

The host club's photo was voted one of the most bizarre pictures in the yearbook in the history of Ouran.

The students of Ouran Academy had no idea what was going on in the snapshot, for it was clearly not any normal posed print and it was most definitely not fanservice – so in the end, the school concluded the picture must have contained some obscure, abstract message that only ones who analyzed deeply enough could possibly have the slightest hint.

The host club would just roll their eyes and mutter "that idiot" under their breath every time it was mentioned. But Honey and Mori did agree the picture was a keeper for their last year of high school, and it was a good way to remember their precious club so candidly.

Yuzuru wasn't sure what to comment when he laid his eyes on that picture. It did anything but confirm whether he was right or wrong from those words he spoke that Tuesday night. But Tamaki insisted he _was _right, that the picture displayed the beautiful and honest friendship the seven of them possessed, to which Yuzuru merely replied, "You look like you're being socked in the face."

But despite his father's words, Tamaki knew the picture meant much more than just a beating (even if it did bruise a little the next day). Tamaki knew that if he took a good look at the photo, that split second the camera lens shuttered, it caught six boys and one boyish girl having a good time having him around. The smiles behind the mud, stains, or whatever that goop was (to this day he still didn't figure it out) was more real than any other posed picture in the yearbook. Tamaki kept a bookmark tucked to that page for future reference every time the boy was feeling sappy.

To others, it was just a silly blooper picture taken at the wrong time.

To him, it was a display of true friendship, and that spoke more than any form of action or words could prove.

And so, in the end, Tamaki's zit was forever gone, the host club members made sure to scrub hard and shower every day, and life went on. Tamaki's greatest dilemma was resolved, and the host club members all lived happily ever after.

Except for the twins, who showed up to school the next week with a familiar bump on their faces.

**End.**

* * *

**Author's Note: **A bad ending, I know. My writing has degraded much more than usual. I lost inspiration a long time ago and had to rush writing it just to get it over with… in short, I don't really like this story at all, so I don't blame you if you don't either. :-\

Go ahead, throw your tomatoes of disappointment! –weeps-

(ButhallelujahIcanfinallymoveonandworkonstoriesIactuallywanttowritenow.)


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